This research is an exegesis of 1 Samuel 2:27-36. It includes a literary analysis, involving context, vocabulary, and textual difficulties. It also includes a historical analysis, involving a source critical analysis, a form critical analysis, a traditio-historical analysis, and historical criticism. And it includes a contemporary analysis.

Between the judges of Israel and its kings stood two families that contrasted the two ways of receiving God’s word. Elkanah’s family is faithful to the commands of God to yearly visit Him at his sanctuary in Shiloh. Eli and his family, the priests at Shiloh, are faithless to the commands of God, for while Eli discharges the duties of a priest well enough, he utterly fails to discharge his duties as a parent, so that his sons who are to be priests after him violate Levitical commands …